Six compelling instances of dogs in literature

Claudia Dey's new novel is Heartbreaker.

One her six favorite instances of dogs in literature, as shared at Publishers Weekly:

The Days of Abandonment by Elena Ferrante

The narrator loses her long-time husband “one April afternoon, right after lunch” to the love of a younger woman. His announcement comes with the brutal, casual sting of a slap. The narrator must reconfigure her life and her interiors. She does this with the rage and odd remove of a woman watching her own body be consumed by fire. The reader cannot help but be addicted to the dark rush of Ferrante’s brain, the velocity of her sentences. The narrator’s small children pin her to reality, and yet what is so disturbing about this slender book, is that we, the readers, must take on the concern for them. The “abandonment” in the title is not only the husband’s but the mother’s instinct to keep her children safe. Add to this volatility: Otto, the dog––panting, straining, barking, whining, baring his fangs––another unruly, needy being the narrator must care for. By straining against his collar, he also strains against the mother’s violent wish for the love she has lost.

Read about another entry on the list.

--Marshal Zeringue